"Anecdotally, people are also using ASMR videos to help with stress, depression, loneliness, and social anxiety," says Giulia Poerio, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Poerio recently published a study in PLoS One that found ASMR does, in fact, help people feel calmer, less stressed, and less sad. It even tangibly lowers their heart rates—all suggesting ASMR may have very real, therapeutic value. Meanwhile, previous research in PeerJ reports the sounds can help temporarily alleviate symptoms of depression and chronic pain for those who are tuned into the tingles.
I have had ASMR for as long as I can remember, but had no idea it was actually a recognised thing! I only get mine from for example; someone looking through my makeup bag, or using something of mine, anything that is gentle and concentrated (if that makes sense) I watch ASMR videos which are makeup tutorials or spa role plays – they are amazing for relaxation and sleep.
I never realized this sensation had a name, but have been experiencing it from childhood. While studying about kundalini rising, I read the analogy of the thousand petal lotus blossoming on the crown of the head. I thought, ah, I know what that feels like! Sometimes reading letters from friends triggered it. Getting “picked” during a game of 7 Up triggered it. Having someone do the trick of pulling imaginary string from my palm triggered it.
Anyway, I have no problem sleeping, ever. I usually have a problem getting to bed, because I fall asleep wherever I’m sitting. My big problem is being intimate. If I’m in the middle of business, and I start thinking about my girlfriend’s body touching parts of the right side of my body, I start getting severe tickles and I’ve tossed her to the side because it’s too much for me. It’s one of those things where you tell yourself not to think about it, but it makes you think about it more. My right knee is the worst part. Anyone comes near that knee, not even touching it – they could just sit next to me, and if their leg touches my knee occasionally – I get tickle fits.
I keep randomly getting this weird sensation that feels warm and kind of tingly but I can’t tell because it happens randomly and last for a very short time but if I relax my body it comes to my face and spreads every we’re else and lasts a little longer for some reason its not strong enough to make me sleepy or relaxed for to long unfortunitly. I don’t know what this feeling is and most triggers might not work for me because I may not have asmr but I’ve never had this feeling at all before until recently.
I am in my early 30’s and have experienced this feeling since I was very young. I never understood it, but always loved it. It was my “special feeling” I’ve only just looked it up online and found this. You sum it up so well. I love make up tutorials on youtube, where they are talking to you but working with their hands and sometimes it’s the “click” of something…like when they are putting things away but not rushing….its that sound that also brings it out in me. I have it at work quite often, when someone is showing me something and its the click of the pen, or the keyboard that sets it off. It’s an amazing feeling and I love having it, never ever thought it was a “real” thing!
“There is a bit of culinary seduction or sensualized seduction in those videos, and some of our minds go there because they are young females,” Richard said. “I would not label them erotic ASMR, which is much more blatant. These are food ASMR. ASMR inherently has a strong tone of intimacy, so there is an aspect of connectivity associated with ASMR that can overlap into things like sensuality or sexualization, but they are different.”

Kelly knows that she inspires other kids to take up ASMR – children at school ask for advice on how to make popular YouTube videos. At one football game recently, kids swamped Kelly for photos. “It was like… crazy,” Kelly whispers dramatically. “I went with friends and we walked past this group of cheerleaders and they all got quiet. They came up one after another and were like, ‘Let’s take a picture.’”

Just curious if I’m alone in this– I don’t get ASMR from physical sounds or sensations, but I get it VERY strong from certain songs or concepts that have emotional impact, or from having an understanding of some sensory experience (such as a song) that I didn’t before. It doesn’t matter whether the emotion means anything to me, personally, but if the singer sounds like they mean it it’s a trigger.
Bob Ross ALWAYS triggers this response (I have 15+ Joy of Painting episodes saved on my DVR right now). While all the other videos triggered my ASMR somewhat, the Rushka tea one had the most effect. I also like to watch people doing crafts (the sound of scissors cutting construction paper is amazing). Getting a massage or just watching someone get a massage (I can even read the description of spa treatments & have an ASMR response!) I love my hair to be played with too! As you probably know, the list can go on forever!!
At the other end of the spectrum, I had a memory of a sexual experience that was such a strong trigger that for almost 15 years after the event, just thinking about that experience could trigger an actual orgasm with full body ASMR. (sorry if that’s TMI) (And don’t anyone be too jealous, I’m now old, gray, fat and long past those days in my life, but I’ve got the memories. LOL)
NBC News: "Why some researchers say 'brain tingles' could be the next big trend in relaxation" — "Have you ever felt a static-like or tingling sensation on the top of your head when someone brushes your hair or whispers to you? The feeling may travel down your arms and your spine, and it likely makes you feel very relaxed. Some call it a 'sparkly' feeling, and it might happen when you hear someone crinkle a piece of paper or when someone traces a word on your back.
i don’t know if this is too late to post this here, but I can do this thing that I start in my ears- it kind of sounds like thunder.. and it kind of travels down into the area between my shoulder blades.. sometimes i can do it so intensely that I can shudder. This only becomes an involuntary action when I’m sick. I never thought anything of it before, and past google attempts at “making thunder sounds in your ears” and other silly variations turned fruitless. I don’t know if this is the same thing you guys are talking about it, but if anyone wants to talk to me about it- I’m all ears!
While most girls her age earned their pocket money babysitting the neighbours’ kids, Kelly spent that summer in her bedroom filming 50 custom-made ASMR videos. She would receive daily email requests for bespoke videos, shoot the footage, receive the money over PayPal (ten minutes cost $50, whereas for $30 (about £23) you’d get a five-minute clip) and upload the video to her YouTube channel, Life with Mak.
So how do you know if you have ASMR? There’s no single way to tell for sure, but for starters, you can watch some of the internet’s most popular videos and determine whether they elicit a tingling response. And for your convenience, we’ve compiled some of the best ASMR videos that YouTube has to offer—so get those goose bumps ready, and while you’re at it, try these brain teasers to find out whether you’re smarter than an astronaut.
The explanation behind this physiological reaction lies in the brain. "It's likely that the tingling is due to specific neurochemicals (like oxytocin and endorphins) being released during ASMR—and these neurochemicals are also inducing the deep feeling of relaxation," says Craig Richard, PhD, an ASMR researcher, professor at Shenandoah University in Virginia, and author of Brain Tingles. In a 2018 study published by Richard and his colleagues, they found that ASMR activated similar regions of the brain as those activated during affiliate behaviors, which includes interpersonal bonding (such as parent-infant bonding) along with grooming and care-giving behaviors that involve positive personal attention. These behaviors share similar triggers with ASMR, such as gentle touch, soft voices, focused attention, and a bond of trust.
On June 3 2018, Makenna Kelly, a 13-year old from Fort Collins, Colorado, uploaded the video that propelled her to internet stardom. Entitled “Eating Raw Honeycomb – EXTREMELY Sticky Mouth Sounds”, it featured the teen chewing fistfuls of pure honeycomb directly in front of a microphone for 16 minutes. In the following months, it was viewed 12 million times. By October, Kelly had reached one million YouTube subscribers.

I don’t know if I have the asmr described here, but I find myself getting something like ‘warm chills’ along my back and head. They often happen when I relax myself or feel apprehensive. Examples are; during wreck it Ralph when Ralph was falling towards the mentos on coke bottle mountain. I was getting Butt tons of these. Or maybe when I am sort of tense and its a cold day, I move around a little and feel some tingles. I get these tingles whenever I expect something sort of intense to happen; explosions, a crushing impact, the defeat of a character I love. But only when I expect it, never during.

She made her first ASMR video in February 2011, filming herself as she leafed through a journal and played with seashells. The video logged just two views in a month, and Maria was so disappointed that she deleted it. A few months later, she tried again; this time, there were a few encouraging comments. She kept at it, and by the end of the year, she had 30,000 subscribers. Nearly three years later, she has more than 300,000.
You can kind of understand why. To people who don't experience ASMR, the videos can rightly look completely ridiculous. Also, because a sense of intimacy can be a very powerful trigger, it's no surprise that some of the best artists are very attractive girls, and there's clearly some personal security risks when you're putting your face out there and developing strange online relationships with people who might start to rely on a false sense of intimate connection with you.
NBC News: "Why some researchers say 'brain tingles' could be the next big trend in relaxation" — "Have you ever felt a static-like or tingling sensation on the top of your head when someone brushes your hair or whispers to you? The feeling may travel down your arms and your spine, and it likely makes you feel very relaxed. Some call it a 'sparkly' feeling, and it might happen when you hear someone crinkle a piece of paper or when someone traces a word on your back.
When she first felt it, she had no idea what it was. In kindergarten in central Russia, Maria and her friends would sometimes tickle each other gently, running their fingers over the skin of their forearms. For Maria, the experience was transcendent, sending a cascade of goosebumps over her head and down her back: “I would be left in a zombie-like state,” she says. “I would just be so relaxed.”
This is really interesting. I didn't get any tingling from any of theses videos and there were a few videos on YouTube that said they would trigger the sensation too but nothing, although, most of them were extremely annoying and irritating like the whispering ones, they were not pleasant at all :( . I was looking for the reason I get a full body tingling when I hear certain singing voices. Its like a flushing from my feet to my head of tiny bubbles at least I know it isnt called ASMR I looked into Frisson also and it isn't that either..... the search continues.
Looking for Amsers to this riddle for 35 years. I was born in ’72, experienced AMSR since childhood, asked thousands of people through my life, none empathised with me, I thought I was unique or touched in the head. I would activate usually from watching people performing simple tasks, like drawing and conversing while in deep artistic thought (Graffiti Artist since ’85), or watching a Teacher perform a task for the class.
In the first peer-reviewed article on ASMR, published in Perspectives in Biology in summer 2013, Nitin Ahuja, who was at the time of publication a medical resident at the University of Virginia, invited conjecture on whether the receipt of simulated medical attention might have some tangible therapeutic value for the recipient, comparing the purported positive outcome of clinical role play ASMR videos with the themes of the novel Love in the Ruins by author and physician Walker Percy, published in 1971.[5]